EUGENE, Ore. — A massive donation by a mystery donor, now area homeless have hope for a new home.

Someone stepped forward with a $400,000 donation to buy land and establish a permanent homeless camp.

Mary Broadhurst is a local attorney. She’s working with the anonymous donor. She says the intent of the donation is to keep those who were at the illegal camp known as Whoville together at a large site.

Before anything comes together, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.

Broadhurst says a non-profit has to become the fiscal sponsorship for the camp. Then there’s the land acquisition, that will likely be in Eugene. The city may also have to be on board and address any zoning issues.

Because the new camp will be private, those at the site will be able to tell others when it’s time go.

“It’s going to be a lot more self managed, we’re going to have on-site, real homeless people being real security for our own community,” said camper Nathan Showers. “Yeah its beautiful.”

This could be a lengthy process. There is no timetable.

As it continues to come together, Broadhurst says they will look at other successful sites like Opportunity Village and Right 2 Dream Too in Portland.

An outside organization will have to run the camp. The donation is for land purchase only, not for running the camp.

Not_Mister_Rogers_Neighborhood says:

“we’re going to have on-site, real homeless people being real security for our own community”

Swing and a miss….Does anyone else have a problem with this statement? This did NOT work at the squatter site by campus if you recall the rejected camper incident in December that ended in conflict which required police action. PLEASE do not waste this money. Its fantastic that someone who can help is helping, and i fully support a professionally managed site to help people stay sheltered while they seek a real housing solution, but, If you allow the homeless camp to be run by its own inhabitants, its just Whoville with money they can’t afford to waste.